Sunday, January 4, 2015

15 New Things

Sunrise at Penfield Beach, Fairfield, CT

Since 2012, I've created a list of goals that I hope to accomplish throughout the year. Each year, I add one more goal than I did the year before. In the past, I've repeated goals that I failed and failed and failed. I decided that this year, everything on the list will be new because I was starting to feel depressed about constantly failing the same task. At the end of the year, I'll post the results of this list. Let's get to it!

1. Finish the Shooting Calendar Photo Challenge.
I've taken a photo every day for the past 11 months and I've decided to continue until it's a full 365 photo challenge. That only leaves me January, which I'm on target for. The name shooting calendar means that I have 31 words written on pieces of paper. Each morning, I pick a word out of a bowl and photograph it. For each month, I've used a single lens or camera for the entire month; forcing myself to really get to know the equipment. I post these photos each day on both my Pinterest and Tumblr pages. At the end of the challenge, I'm going to put together a collage of each word and I'll post it on the blog.

2. Blog more often and/or faster.
I don't really know what happened last year, but I just didn't want to blog. I took months to post concert photos that I had taken. It was lazy and foolish and I'm doing my best to get back into the swing of things. I want to get concert photos up within a week of taking them and complete more posts than I did last year.

3. Clear out/organize my email.
I have multiple email accounts, but my Gmail is completely out of control. I want to archive all of the emails until I reach the end of the box.

4. Website Redesign!
The template has been purchased and my web designer is anxiously awaiting my photos to get the new site up and running. I promise I'll get those to you soon!

5. Take a vacation.
It's really sad that I have to put this on my goal list to force myself to actually do this. I didn't take a full week off from the day job last year, except for the week I was forced to stay home because I was contagious with the flu. With the addition of more photography work, I really need to take the time off to recharge myself and not get sick.

6. Say no.
This is tied pretty closely to the previous goal. I took on way too much work and went to too many social engagements when I really needed to decompress. I'm really bad about saying no to people and it's something I'm going to try to do this year.

7. Shoot a roll of film a month from February to December.
Since I'm finishing up the shooting calendar in January, I wanted to have another photography based goal for the year. I have so many rolls of expired film that I want to use up and I like the way shooting film makes me slow down and think. I don't plan on sending them out for development until I've shot them all, so it'll be fun to post that early in 2016.

8. Don't wait until the last minute to do my taxes.
I do this every single year and stress out about it, so for this year, I'm getting them done before April.

9. Run four 5K's.
Last year, I ran two, so this year I want to double that number.

10. Balance my Wedding Photography with my Concert Photography.
On the one hand, I make way more money shooting weddings, but concerts are my passion. I want to find a balance between doing what can support me financially and what I love to do.

11. Always send out that photo request.
Even when I think an artist is too big to say yes to me, even if I've been turned down in the past, I'm going to keep on asking. I was really shocked by some of the people that said yes to me this year and I need to realize that I'm good enough to get those gigs.

12. Paint Drew's bathroom.
Exactly what it sounds like.

13. Create new business cards.
This goes along with the website redesign. I want nice double sided business cards with different images on them.

14. Follow a workout program for 30 days.
I've failed a lot of my fitness goals in the past, so I'm setting a pretty simple goal here. I hope I can start a routine after doing a workout for 30 days that will continue.

15. No new things next year.
While I like the idea of putting my goals on this blog to hold myself accountable and I hope that it inspired some of you to try new things, I'm ready to stop after this year. If I feel myself getting lazy without a goal list, I'll pick it back up.